Day 310- Theodore Rousseau and Daumier

 August 12, 2022

Mirabile dictu, Gallery 802 is open! Again, I realize that the numerical order of the galleries has little to do with the chronological order of the works they contain. This gallery is devoted primarily to artists who painted the French rural landscape during the middle decades of the 19th century, when their attention shifted from Italy to  their own country. There are several paintings by Millet, and while he'll never be a favorite, I note the way he tried to give his peasant figures monumentality and dignity. On the other hand, I find I like the works of Theodore Rousseau (with whom I was previously almost completely unfamiliar, except that I knew that he was "the other " non-Douanier Rousseau). I learn that it was, in fact, a Rousseau oil sketch of a rocky landscape in the Auvergne, which the artist painted in 1830 at the age of 18, that helped to generate broad interest in depictions of the French countryside; I was interested in this work because I had no concept of what that region of France looks like.

I especially like Rousseau's "A River in a Meadow, " probably painted about a decade later, because it displays the artist's ability to create canvases that, while small (this one measures about 24 inches wide and 12 inches high),  show careful composition and crisp detail.  The twisting footpath echoes the curve of the river and draws us into the scene. The leaves of the trees in the middle distance are so clearly articulated that someone who knows much more about trees than I do could probably identify the species.

But it's probably inevitable - I am a sociologist, after all - that the painting that most draws me is Daumier's "The Third-Class Carriage," which he painted around 1862-64 after a lithograph he had made some ten years earlier.  Measuring about 36 inches across and 24 inches high, the painting shows in the foreground an older woman clutching a market basket, a younger woman holding a baby to her bosom, and a young boy sprawled beside them - presumably a family; the men seated behind them are less clearly indicated  The women are clearly poor - their clothing is of plain homespun - and they look worn, if not exhausted. Daumier portrays them with the utmost sympathy and respect.